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Ulrike’s Brain

Forum Expanded 2017
© Bruce LaBruce
Referencing sixties B-movies like They Saved Hitler’s Brain and The Brain That Would Not Die, Ulrike’s Brain finds Doctor Julia Feifer (Susanne Sachsse) arriving at an academic conference with an organ box. Inside the box: the brain of Ulrike Meinhof, which was saved by the authorities along with the brains of the three other leaders of the RAF after their deaths in Stammheim prison. Doctor Feifer can communicate telepathically with Ulrike’s brain, which is directing her to lead a new feminist revolution. To that end, she is searching for the ideal female body to transplant Ulrike’s brain into. At the same time, her arch-rival, Detlev Schlesinger, an extreme right-wing ideologue, arrives at the conference with the ashes of Michael Kühnen, the former German neo-Nazi leader and infamous homosexual who died of AIDS in 1989. When the two Frankenstein’s monsters of the extreme left and the extreme right meet, chaos ensues.
by Bruce LaBruce
with Gertrude Stammheim, Susanne Sachsse, Jonathan Johnson, Saskia Timm, Stefan Sandrock, Florian Töbe, Yves Hanke, Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert Germany / Canada 2017 German, English 55’ Colour

With

  • Gertrude Stammheim
  • Susanne Sachsse
  • Jonathan Johnson
  • Saskia Timm
  • Stefan Sandrock
  • Florian Töbe
  • Yves Hanke
  • Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert

Crew

Written and Directed by Bruce LaBruce
Cinematography Bernd Schoch, Heiko Alberti
Editing Joern Hartmann
Music BunnyCat production
Costumes Katja-Inga Baldowski
Make-Up Maria Trifu
Producers Jürgen Brüning, Bruce LaBruce, Sonja Klümper, Paula Alamillo Rodriguez, Jonathan Johnson

World Sales

Jürgen Brüning Filmproduktion

Produced by

Jürgen Brüning Filmproduktion

Additional information

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Photos

Bruce LaBruce

© Saad Al-Hakkak

The filmmaker, photographer, writer and artist is based in Toronto. He has written and directed 14 feature films. Hustler White screened in Panorama in 1996 and became his first international box-office success. Gerontophilia won the Grand Prix at the 2013 Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montreal. As a photographer, he has had several international exhibitions including “Obscenity” at La Fresh gallery in Madrid which caused a national scandal. His feature film L.A. Zombie premiered at Locarno in 2010 and was banned in Australia. His work screened at the Berlinale several times, most recently in 2017 with The Misandrists, also in Panorama.

Filmography (selection)

1987 Bruce and Pepper Wayne Gacy’s Home Movies; short film · Boy/Girl; short film 1988 Slam!; short film · I Know What It’s Like to be Dead.; short film 1991 No Skin Off My Ass 1994 Super 8 1/2 1996 Hustler White; co-director: Rick Castro 1998 Skin Flick 2004 The Raspberry Reich 2007 Otto; or, Up with Dead People 2008 Give Piece of Ass a Chance; short film 2009 The Bad Breast; or, The Strange Case of Theda Lange; short film 2010 Weekend In Alphaville; short film · L.A. Zombie 2012 Offing Jack; short film 2013 Défense de fumer; short film · Gerontophilia 2014 Pierrot Lunaire; medium-length film 2017 Refugee’s Welcome; short film · The Misandrists · Ulrike’s Brain; medium-length film 2020 Saint Narcisse 2024 The Visitor

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2024